July 16th Onward to Oregon.
The van got all packed. Every trip into the hotel and back was always a bit of work. I love a good tetris puzzle though and had to load the van just right to make it all fit.
It was always a fun thing to look forward to crossing into another state and crossing off our check list another check point. I love that we took as many pictures as we did at each spot when we could.
Oregon was so green and beautiful! The coast was amazing and the weather so nice. I have to say I totally understand why all those people back in early times took the "Oregon Trail" and it was worth it to have a few relatives die of dysentery to make it to beautiful Oregon. Play the game Oregon Trail someday. So ridiculously 1990's.
We had to go down this big underground elevator to get to the cave to peek through.
Us looking at all the sea lions and then a picture of what we were actually looking at.
The Oregon coast was once again simply breath taking.
After visiting the sea lions we headed on to Thor's Well on the coast. It was a tide pool with this amazing cave hole in the ocean that water comes up out of. It was really cool. We came at a lower tide, so it didn't spray up as much as we hoped.
The hikes we took to get to coastlines or the trees were always so beautiful to walk along.
In Oregon there were berries a plenty, and we couldn't stop picking.
We had to claim Thor's Well because it is SO COOL!
\Third time was the charm except someone HAD to be walking in the background.
The tide pools there were a lot of fun to explore.
Derek is always the best at going out and showing the kids how to properly explore nature. He is a little boy at heart when it comes to nature. Tide pools, the beach, forests, just nature are his great adventures in life. His eyes light up as he looks for tiny and large creations of God. His enthusiasm seeps easily into the kids hearts and they will follow him anywhere.
That night we stayed in a fun hotel right on the coast. We could literally open the doors to put our feet in sand and walk just down to the beach.
On July 17th we hiked around another beach and did laundry and relaxed without having to drive that day. It was such a nice way to relax and felt like a vacation rather than moving for just a breath.
Walking along the beach by the hotel.
Oregon had the most delicious road side cherries. We bought so many pounds and we ate them in 2 days because they were so yummy!
The other beach we explored. We always are pretty good at find some sort of creatures.
Alas, our mini vacation had to come to an end and on July 18th we were on the road again with a destination of British Columbia, Canada!!! Time to cross the borders and leave the United States for a short while. I was SO excited to finally see Washington, and Canada. We were very nervous about passing the border and customs because of covid. But, all went well, and we made it to our hotel.
It's a terrible picture, but good bye beautiful Oregon. You were good to us.
Our only real stop in Washington was at a Wendy's. The weather was beautiful and it was lush and green. The next time we have a chance to explore Washington we definitely will take up. Sadly, we just passed through and drove straight through Seattle and up to British Columbia.
We made it to the border, and snapped a dumb picture driving up to customs.
AND Welcome to British Columbia, Canada "Supposedly, the best place on earth".
And just like that we were in Canada. And still had SO many days before we made it back to the United States again. That Canada is very long.
This was the view across from our hotel. The mountain ranges were so beautiful in Canada. Everything was lush and green and they had mountains. I loved how beautiful it was.
The dogs were doing surprisingly really well for the trip. The kids were so helpful taking care of them and taking them potty, and it was pretty fun having them along. It was just so pretty as the kids were taking the dogs not to take a photo.
July 19th we were back on the road again. We had several really long days of driving to make it all the way through British Columbia just to even get to the Yukon.
The whole drive was beautiful. At one gas stop I decided we needed something Canadian, so we got some bear dropping chocolate. We were really hoping to see some wildlife on the drive and our first sighting happened that very day. I basically held my camera the rest of the trip trying to snap all the wildlife we saw. I can't even remember how many bears we saw, but I saw at least 5 in the couple of days driving.
And because Connor is so handsome and asked for a photo I couldn't deny him.
We stayed at a motel a lot of workers stay at called the "Siesta Inn".
In the morning we got all loaded up and ready for the road again. We had to grab a photo that said, "We can still do this, we are having fun, bring on the long driving, and we hope we see animal life today!"
Did that photo say all of that to you?
The drive really was so beautiful.
July 21st brought my first bear on camera. He was a brown bear and beautiful and we may have screamed a lot in the car over excitement.
We also saw a moose that day.
July 21st we made it to the Yukon. We had a super awesome experience crossing the border from British Columbia to the Yukon. They had covid police basically checking who was crossing and doing contact tracing. Because the Yukon has less than about 300,000 people total in the entire territory they didn't want us American's coming and spreading covid.
However, these pictures do have a fun black bear in them we caught while driving. The bears always got scared and ran away from the road while we drove.
We stopped to eat lunch at a gas station/convenient store. Eden said hello to some dogs and then we were on the road again. We had a hotel in Whitehorse, Yukon the biggest city in the Yukon. As we came to the border the border police said we had to stay on the Alaska highway and not go into downtown Whitehorse. However, we had hotel reservations already, and they said we should be ok. Once we got to Whitehorse there was another check point for covid and they said the same thing. We got to the hotel and parked and didn't plan to leave the hotel except for some food to bring to the hotel. We couldn't find anywhere to eat, and apparently someone called the covid cops on us and reported our license plate number. So, police officers called us and basically asked us what we were doing there and we again had to explain our situation. We tried looking for another hotel, and there was nothing that would fit 6 people and 2 dogs. With no other options the hotel basically said don't worry about it we aren't kicking you out. We had to finally order hotel food and call it a night. But, saying our vehicle might get vandalized for parking at the hotel wasn't the funnest of nights. Needless to say the next morning we made an early leave to get on the road.
We made it! We still had quite a drive, but it was nice to at least be back.
While Whitehorse, was beautiful which this was taken just outside of, we were so happy to finally be back in America the very next afternoon.
July 22nd
We saw this cool fox first thing in the morning.
We had a couple of interesting bathroom breaks.
The first stop was literally in the middle of nowhere and a french lady told us we couldn't use the bathroom because we were American. So, we got back in the car and drove on. The next stop was a gas station and the kids all had to go, and these awesome signs were posted everywhere.
We ate some lunch and then got on the road again.
It was time to be back in the good old United States.
This customs was easier than Canada's because I feel like they basically realized we already had to make it through Canada, so who cares now. Handed our passports and that was basically all they needed to see with our military orders. And we were off to the cabin we were staying at that night.
This was such a fun cabin to stay at. It felt like a vacation once again before reality was about to set in. We were excited to make it to our new home, but with that came work, and then eventually a moving truck, and all that comes with moving. So, we really enjoyed this break.
Eden of course found our neighbors and made the best of friends with their ginormous dog who reminded me of the dog on The Sandlot. Poor Odin and Freya didn't know what to think of the big dog.
The kids were able to play for hours and Connor played with a little boy his age in the next cabin over. Rocks, dirt, tag, and out of the van time was very much needed.
